Strangers getting on my boat

[OldDan1943]

lol IF they are going to steal my tender, they better bring cable cutters and an air pump, it leaks. If they are going to steal my motor, cable cutters and a hack saw.

 

[Lou_tribal]

This remind me one transit on Rideau downtown Ottawa. End of the afternoon, a group of youngs came along to sir nearby to have fun and drink few shots. They were staring at my boat and I was on the upper deck. They hailed me with the kind of questions young can ask with all the naive but refreshing aspect of it. I spent almost an hour having fun with them, we got one or two drinks then my wife and I left for diner at a nearby restaurant, we said bye bye they told me I am cool (that's true no doubt about it!) No arm, fun time, everybody happy, myself as well as themselves, a good evening!
Would I have an aggressive or pretentious attitude maybe I would have got a surprise when back to the boat. Often you get what you sow, being with your gun or attitude.

L

 

[SteveK]

Hello All,

Something happened over the weekend and I'm looking for some feedback as to what I should have done at the time.

I was tied up at the Fenelon Falls lock, which is on the Trent Severn system here in Ontario, for a couple of nights before taking Arrow Naut to the marina for the haulout etc.

It was Thanksgiving here in Canada so there were lots of people around fishing and strolling up and down the locks. On Tuesday morning as I was getting ready to leave, I took my two dogs off the boat for their last "business" trip. As I stepped off the boat, I saw a family standing down the dock watching me. It was a mother, father and 2 teenagers. They definitely saw me get off the boat with my dogs. I walked past them, smiled and we exchanged a good morning.

The dogs and I wandered up the path and steps to the top of the locks so I could also put the last of my garbage in a bin. As I got to the top, I glanced back just in time to see the mother step onto my boat so that her husband could take a photo.

I stood in stunned amazement. I was about 200 feet away and it was windy so I knew they wouldn't hear if I called out. As I stood watching, one of the teenagers looked up and saw me staring. She turned and said something to her parents. The mother looked up at me and then stepped off my boat. Her husband then had his photo taken holding onto the side rail. Then the daughter had her photo taken sitting on the side of my boat. The other daughter respectfully stood beside my boat but didn't touch it. She was the one who saw me staring.

As I have only been boating since June, is this a normal thing? If not, what should I have done? Walk back and politely explain that I wasn't happy with them just getting onto my boat without permission?

Thoughts?

Liz, Kudos for keeping your cool. Since you were at the top of the ramp I would have waited there for them to leave and snap their pictures, as many as you could. Then tell them you are posting on social media in case someone they know will recognize them and learn what they did.

 

[firehoser75]

While "harmless" this time, I think the best idea where you are reasonably sure that the "trespass" is harmless (just self entitled or unthinking), the confronting them with the "can I help you" followed with the "so you would think it was OK if I entered your home or car uninvited?" might be a good way to go in the future.
Robbers, hoodlums, not so much

 

[Lou_tribal]

Liz, Kudos for keeping your cool. Since you were at the top of the ramp I would have waited there for them to leave and snap their pictures, as many as you could. Then tell them you are posting on social media in case someone they know will recognize them and learn what they did.

Lol do you really think it would be a shame for one to be flagged to have taken a picture from a boat?
No need to tell that posting a picture of someone (a person) without consent is illegal and can get you to court.

L

 

[menzies]

Lol do you really think it would be a shame for one to be flagged to have taken a picture from a boat?
No need to tell that posting a picture of someone (a person) without consent is illegal and can get you to court.

L

Actually not.

When in public you have no recourse in stopping anyone from taking a photo of you.

 

[Wxx3]

Not normal, but not uncommon.

Can happen anywhere, touristy destinations it may be more likely to happen, especially where a lot of people come from areas without boats.

I find the best thing is just ask...."can I help you?" Sometimes they are so embassies and apologetic that it's hard not be a little nice back. Others...well you probably can figure out from their response how to answer back.

Thugs onboard...beware...they might have plans past a selfie....

Very Well Said as usual.

One of the only times I knew it happened to me, I was in the engine room, while docked in Riga, Latvia. I heard/felt people walking on the deck.
Assumed it was my friends, but when they didn't say anything after some minutes, I came out of ER to see what was going on.
It was a couple in wedding dress taking pictures.
It's hard to complain about that.
They left without a word, which was not unexpected since so few people speak English and there is always some embarrassment on their part.

So to the OP, take it as positively as you can, knowing that you are living the life other can only dream of.

 

[psneeld]

You can't post pictures taken in public with people in them and post them in Canada?

 

[Lepke]

People view boats as part of the entertainment and a public resource. Just the way it is. Their kids probably misbehave, too.

 

[oscar]

Growing up in Holland there were quite a few destinations that had no marinas. The city docks were a bulkhead with pilings. As the recreational business grew the deal was rafting. I've seen 7-8*deep, 10 rows. The proper way to get to your boat was over the FORE deck of those you had to get over to get to yours. Crawling through the cockpit was considered bad form. Everyone knew to point in the same direction. You could try to be outside boat (get in late) and not have traffic over your deck. But that also meant you had to get up early as there was always one on the inside that had early plans. Often the times were negotiated the night before. And then there was of course the drunks that got home at 3am, and always on an outside boat, tripping and falling over the decks with people trying to sleep right under them.

The biggest pandemonium I ever witnessed was the island of Terschelling in the 70's. It was a busy weekend and there were a TON of recreational vessels. We were allowed to tie up at the fishing docks, but there was one caveat. If the commercial fleet thought the weather was gonna be too crappy to fish out there they would come in to port and we had to move to the rear of the harbor where they were already 5 deep....

So we came out of the restaurant at about 9pm and the harbor master was on a bullhorn telling everyone he was gonna untie the lines in 15 minutes, and he did. Freaked out people, crying kids, as whole rafts were set adrift. Of course it was high tide, the jetty was under and it was pretty breezy with a good chop in the harbor. We were outside boat, or second to outside.....I remember my dad getting a hold of the inside skipper and coordinating quickly. With the two boats running and hand signals they were able to safely move the whole raft clear of the incoming fishing fleet to a place where we could unravel it and reassemble it in the rear harbor which turned into quite the flotilla. Fun times.....

Picture of the harbor. The marina was much smaller in those years, with a breakwater closer in. We were docked just up from that where the large sailing vessels are in the picture. As an aside, these are the "Brown Fleet" . Traditional vessels that take on 10-50+ people on charters. Hand winches and the passengers get to grind them. A hammock at night or just crawl up in a canvas sail on deck......A guitar and a bottle of grog.

 

[Choices]

Good thread.

I was up kind of early at Stock Island and a very scantly clad beautiful young lady was posing for pictures with a pro photographer.

As she posed it was obvious to me she was wearing practically nothing. The sunlight was backlighting her.

They took pictures with my boat as the background, never seeing me sitting in the cockpit drinking my chocolate milk in my tighty whities.

I would have let her on the boat for a couple of those pictures.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Actually not.

When in public you have no recourse in stopping anyone from taking a photo of you.

Nothing prevent you to take a photo but publishing it with comments is a different matter especially when it is not a public event like with a group of people but targetting one in particular.

L

 

[Liz]

To the OP question:

I think you need to atleast start walking back toward the boat to indicate what they're doing isn't ok. Being seen and continuing to walk away, is almost an acknowledgment that what they're doing is ok. You may have to decide at some point to stop or avoid a confrontation, but I would guess in most situations the intruders would leave. The presence of a child probably limits their intrusion to a picture. A can of pepper spray is always a good idea when walking alone in unfamiliar territory.

Ted

Thanks. Next time I will start walking back. I guess I stood in disbelief partly because I wanted to see what would happen and partly because I wanted to drop my garbage in a bin and then return to the boat to head off to get at the marina at the scheduled time.

Confrontation is always easier when you know your rights which I now know thanks to everyone here.

 

[Liz]

Sign on the deck reads:


"Security by Smith & Wesson"

This happened in Canada. We don`t carry guns here LOL

 

[menzies]

Nothing prevent you to take a photo but publishing it with comments is a different matter especially when it is not a public event like with a group of people but targetting one in particular.

L

Huh?

 

[Nomad Willy]

I think you guys are thinking too much.

Sure it was more than a bit rude but I wouldn’t worry about it. You don’t know what happened to that family earlier that day.

I think just waving to let them know you were watching was good. But if you think you should be doing something else .... I would have watched them for five minutes or whatever makes you feel OK and let it go.

 

[BandB]

You step on my property or on my boat without having permission and I consider you a trespasser. Now, like ASD's boat, you would be met by lights and alarms and we'd get a message and see you on camera. Then you'd hear our voice next.

Had we walked back to what you did, my wife would have talked to the two kids and I would have pulled the adults aside. I would have first emphasized how wrong it was and second the lesson they were teaching their kids to not respect the property of others.

For those of you without security systems, you'd be amazed how common this is. It varies from drunks to couples wanting to make out to kids without parents to people looking to steal. At the worst, it's criminal. At the best, it's very poor manners. Sad thing is if they'd only asked we would have been glad to have let them take photos and to have shown their kids around.

One other thought for any of you who thought of it as nothing. Kid falls overboard and you have an injury or even death for which you may be liable. Don't think you're relieved because you didn't grant permission. Swimming pools have long proved otherwise.

 

[SteveK]

I think you guys are thinking too much.

Sure it was more than a bit rude but I wouldn’t worry about it. You don’t know what happened to that family earlier that day.

I think just waving to let them know you were watching was good. But if you think you should be doing something else .... I would have watched them for five minutes or whatever makes you feel OK and let it go.

If after the daughter saw they were caught they all left or came to ask permission, no big deal. But continuing to take pictures while being watched is beyond acceptable. regardless of what happened to them earlier, they were caught and they did not care, a casual thing became trespass.

 

[Sabre602]

I will join the minority who aren't too stressed by this. It's clearly a problem if theft is involved, and the uninvited couple enjoying drinks in the cockpit is too, too much, but we must understand that boats hold a great attraction for people. We have all enjoyed walking the docks and looking at boats. If it seems that no one is aboard, we have all taken good long looks at interesting vessels, peered in the windows, taken pictures. If the docks are open to the public it is normal and expected to have looky-loos and dreamers strolling around. Non-boaters don't necessarily understand how we feel about this, may not understand our boundaries, and I find that virtually all of them have innocent intentions.

Sure, break-ins do occasionally happen, but that's really a completely separate matter. The average dreamer cruising the docks looking at boats would be distressed to know that they're offending anyone by leaning on them, looking in windows, or even stepping onto the thing for a quick photo. Their take home message is "I don't know the etiquette but this boat is cool."

 

[Northern Spy]

Ostensible differences in culture on how people perceive strangers and regard possessions.

I've found a family of four sitting on the gunwhale of Spy eating ice cream. I smiled and nodded towards the boat. They quickly apologized and got up and walked away.

Saw a young couple in love sitting on the trunk cabin posing for a photo once.

Many people taking photos of it while we're obviously on board (even in the cockpit). Occasionally they ask.

None of these people are boaters. They see it as more of a fancy car rather than a RV. A vehicle as opposed to a residence. For the ice cream eaters, it was a park bench in the shade.

It's always been a case of no harm, no foul for me. Shrug.

Next time. Buy an ugly boat.

 

[OldDan1943]

Many non boaters do not understand the concept that my boat is my house.
If they think I will give a tour of the inside of my boat so they can mentally make a note of things to steal, they are wrong.
It would be the same as me knocking on your house door and asking for a tour of the inside.

 

[John R M]

Huh?

According to a 1998 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, publishing a photo of a private individual may violate his or her privacy if the individual is not personally in the news and was not photographed as part of a crowd at a public event like a demonstration or sporting event. In that case the court awarded $2,000 in damages to a young woman who was photographed sitting on a doorstep and the photo used as an illustration of a story that had nothing to do with her personally. “You can’t just go and take a photo of someone and use it for art purposes,” says Jacobsen.

However, it was originally suggested to post the trespasser's picture, so in this case they may be the story, so fair game.

 

[Rufus]

A little off topic, but our boat is situated on a marina T-dock, which has a fishing pier located about 100 feet off the stern. Every year I find three or four fishing lures hung up on the dinghy motor or on the transom. Some of the jerks come over to the marina and ask to recover their missiles. I refuse to let them board, and I keep their lures. This past summer the wind was blowing 25-30 up the stern, and a young gent managed to loft one up to the sundeck, where it wrapped around one of the stainless poles holding up the sunroof. I was below in the salon and heard it hit as it wrapped around the pole. I went up to the sundeck and just stared at the guy. He tells me he "thinks" he hit my boat and didn't know what to do about it. I said I did, and walked over to the line between his pole and my boat. He asked if he could come over and get the lure. I said no need and cut the line. There you go, says I, as I unwound the snag and walked back into the cabin with his fancy lure.

Every year I recover three or four from the dock fishermen and a couple from guys in boats trolling a foot off the port side for Pike and Salmon lurking under our boat (typically snagged on the outboard rudder). They all want their prized lure returned. Ain't gonna happen.

 

[psneeld]

According to a 1998 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, publishing a photo of a private individual may violate his or her privacy if the individual is not personally in the news and was not photographed as part of a crowd at a public event like a demonstration or sporting event. In that case the court awarded $2,000 in damages to a young woman who was photographed sitting on a doorstep and the photo used as an illustration of a story that had nothing to do with her personally. “You can’t just go and take a photo of someone and use it for art purposes,” says Jacobsen.

However, it was originally suggested to post the trespasser's picture, so in this case they may be the story, so fair game.

Thanks, interesting how it conflicts with US law....I wonder how many tourists , even professionals traveling there know that.

 

[kthoennes]

It's funny how boats seem to be in a category all by themselves to a lot of people. You'd stare at a cool car in a parking lot, but almost no one would ever think of opening the door and climbing in (unless you're on a sales lot maybe). If I'm in an RV park and somebody has a really cool Class A all decked out, almost no one would ever think to just open the door and walk inside. For a lot of people those boundaries get a lot more fuzzy with boats.

 

[alormaria]

Do what Joshua Slocum did when anchored in "unusual" places, spread tacks on the deck...

Ha Ha! I thought of that too!



What I did was to pull the boat away from the dock about 6 to 10 feet into the canal each night and run trip lines across the decks and flybridge. No further problems for us but in St. Jean sur Richelieu a nearby Grand Banks had it's bicycles stolen right off their flybridge at night along a well lit dock.

 

[Redhook98]

I have several Ring cameras onboard mine. Have a caught a few curious folks, but nothing too bad.

 

[rslifkin]

As a thought, an aft cabin where someone would have to step onto the aft portion of the boat may serve as a safety feature. On my boat, especially if we dock stbd side to, the most likely spot for someone to step aboard has them stepping almost directly over my head when I'm sleeping. Unless they move very quietly, that's likely to wake me up.

 

[psneeld]

It's funny how boats seem to be in a category all by themselves to a lot of people. You'd stare at a cool car in a parking lot, but almost no one would ever think of opening the door and climbing in (unless you're on a sales lot maybe). If I'm in an RV park and somebody has a really cool Class A all decked out, almost no one would ever think to just open the door and walk inside. For a lot of people those boundaries get a lot more fuzzy with boats.

People get cars, most own one.

Few own big RVs or big boats.

Few go inside of boats, just on deck, like being in your RV space standing nexr to the door taking a picture...sorta like sitting on the gunnels or a quick trip on deck.

No one is defending the practice, just recognizing the mentality.

 

[OldDan1943]

Greet them at the door naked. Tell them, you are a nudist. Invite them in and tell them, they must get naked too AND remove your shoes...... LOL
If that doesn't discourage them, .....